August 7, 2018

Sea of Thieves
Stylized graphics can best be described as an art style which is between realistic- and cartoonish graphics. A game that's using stylized graphics is the newly released Sea of Thieves. One of the developers of the game gave a GDC talk where he explained how they did it: Visual Adventures on Sea of Thieves.

Simplify structures. The graphics should not be realistic, so you have to simplify everything. But you can still achieve a complex scene if you combine several simple objects.

Paint the textures. You can't use photos as textures, so you have to try to simplify the photo reference by hand.

Notice that the textures above were not used in the game because the final textures were actually more detailed: the palm leaves for example look more like real leaves but are still simplified.

Use the light source to change the mode. An often forgotten parameter you can change is the light source in the scene.

The stuff you add should look like it has been used. Almost no products in real life comes shining straight from the factory. You have to add wear and tear: someone has hit rock with that shovel below. You also have to add patches and repair: someone has repaired that gun below with a leather strap.

Simplify the textures. Fortnite tried to use the original realistic textures and simplify them in Photoshop to achieve the style they wanted.

But they realized it was better to hand-paint the textures to give them more character because simplifying a realistic texture by using Photoshop tools made the texture too noisy.

The stuff you add should be deformed. While Sea of Thieves argued that their models should be realistically deformed, Fortnite prefers another style which is more cartoonish.

To achieve this look you just have to remove all parallel lines from a real-world object. This means you can also use photo references instead of drawing concept art.

Even though the graphics is simplified, you can still use normal- and specular maps.

The stuff you add should look like it has been used. As in Sea of Thieves, Fortnite thought it was important to add wear and tear, dust, and leaky bolts, that gives the assets a character.

Don't add anything smaller than a mailbox. Smaller objects will just slow down the player and disrupt the flow. But you can add grass which the player can't collide with and just move through the grass as if it was hollow.

July 5, 2018

Listening to Paradox's own podcast was a really good way to learn about the game industry. Now I found another podcast by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS). It consists of interviews with personalities in the game industry, including the creator of the hugely successful game PlayerUnknown's Battleground (Pubg). The interviewer is Ted Price who's the CEO of Insomniac Game (creators of the new Spider-man game), so he knows what he's talking about. As with the Paradox article, this article will be updated when new episodes are released!

Brendan Green (Pubg)

He started out as a photographer, DJ, and graphic designer, so he wasn't in the game industry for most of his life.

Games like Pubg are popular because there are no rules except the rules you can find in the real world, like gravity. You can do whatever you want to do. There are simplifications, such as swimming with ammunition and weapons, but those simplifications are needed to make the game fun to play.

People like playing survival games because it's inherent in the human nature. How many times have you watched survival television shows and asked yourself: How difficult could it be?

In a game like Pubg you create stories on your own. People show on YouTube how they managed to kill the last person by jumping with a motorbike.

Pubg wasn't the first survival game, and he had before Pubg about four years of experimenting with similar games like DayZ.

If it's not broke - don't fix it. He didn't add stuff to the game just because he could, but because it wasn't needed.

When talking about realism, are you talking about the realism you see in movies or actual realism in the real world? Most people don't know how it is to be killed by a real shotgun, but they have seen it in the movies and sometimes they are confusing movies with real life. What they think is real isn't necessarily real.

The downtime in Battle Royale games are important because some people don't want constant action. But if you want constant action you have the option to get some by dropping at a popular place where like-minded people are dropping.

Another simplification they made was the cars, so the cars could be more realistic but it would be less fun.

If you don't know where to start - start with making a mod to an existing game. DayZ is a mod to the game Arma.

Robin Hunicke (Journey)

Her background is computer science, but also art, which is useful when trying to come up with a new idea and you can paint the idea.

Your mom should understand the game idea. To be sure it's a good idea you need the people who has never seen it before test the game.

Just because something, like a puzzle, fits in another game doesn't mean it will fit in your game.

They rebuilt the Journey game three times.

The more times you play your game, the more stuff you wan't to fix. But in the end you have to ship the game and most people will not notice what you didn't have time to fix.

Most game developers are awkward on the stage so don't be worried if you are it as well.

Hermen Hulst (Guerrilla Games - Horizon: Zero Dawn)

Attention to detail is important. To make something as detailed as possible, the concept art is important, which should be as detailed as possible to make it easier for the people who make the actual 3d models. This will be more expensive but generate a better result.

Don't be afraid to share your knowledge because it will benefit the industry as a whole.

Each project is different so it's difficult to come up with the best practices to make a game.

It's difficult to know if the game is a good game before the game is finished but you can use your experience to make a judgment if the game is good before the game is finished.

Most people are in the game industry because it's a fast growing, evolving industry. Many people are competitive and want to be the best at what they are doing.

Neil Druckmann (Naughty Dog - The Last of Us)

The World Without Us is a good book to read if you want to build a post-apocalyptic game. It explains what would happen to the natural and built environment if humans suddenly disappeared. Another good book to read is The Last Town on Earth which is about the 1918 flu epidemic. So even if you are making a game about made-up events, there are books you can read to make a more realistic game. Other good sources of inspiration are movies and museums.

If you realize that after making 50 percent of the game, you have to change a major part of the game, then don't worry because that has happened to many successful games, including Firewatch and Uncharted 4.

It's important to listen to people saying what you don't want to hear. If you are disagreeing it's still important to listen because there is some truth in what they are saying. But the problem they see might not be the real problem, and their solution might not be the real solution.

"x is dead!" (where x is single-player, console, PC, etc). This is not necessarily the truth because the game industry is constantly evolving. Just because AAA companies are not making money from single-player games today, they might do it tomorrow when they come up with an idea no-one thought about before.

Christina Norman (Riot Games - League of Legends)

Most developers use their experience when making games, and that experience is often based on where they live. So if you live in Europe you make a game towards the European audience and forget what someone in Asia will say when they play the game. The gameplay itself should be the same (at least if you have a multiplayer game), but feedback may be different depending on where the player is living, and people in different regions will buy different skins. But people know where the game was made so if they buy a game made in Europe they expect to play a game with European values, so there's a balancing act.

10 hours a week is enough if you want to test-play other games.

Instead of complaining that people spend time and money playing "silly" games like Candycrush and Farmville, you should study why people play these games and you will realize that you can learn something.

When play-testing other games, the important lesson you learn might be "what not to add to your game."

Be careful with statistically changes. If you use data and realize that a character is too powerful, it's not necessarily the character who's too powerful, but an item the character is often using.

Don't prioritize money before the player.

Nathan Vella (Capy Games)

Internal- and external game jams as well as dedicating Fridays to finding new ideas is a great way to find new ideas.

The games get 10 times better if you delegate responsibility and don't micromanage. But you also need to discuss with the people you delegated work to if it becomes too crazy.

Many games are released each week, to show your game to the world you need to analyze what other successful games (within your genre) did, and you need to show an understandable version of your game in a trailer or gif on social media.

It doesn't matter anymore if you have a website because people will go directly to Steam or YouTube to find information about the game. When was the last time you visited a game's website?

Todd Howard (Bethesda Game Studios - Fallout)

Step 1 when making a game is to find the "tone" of the game.

Too many games are shipped with features that work, but just because it works it doesn't mean it's good. The building system in your game may work but it might not be the best building system.

Game developers tend to focus on the wrong things, like foot sliding and bouncing rocks, that players don't care about. The player care more about the save game system. What you should do is to write a list with what the player cares about and another list with what you care about. You will see that these lists are completely different.

If you pick a game and then hire the people who made that game (with the same tools and budget) and tell them to make the same game, you will end up with a completely new game.

Sean Vanaman (Firewatch) & Amir Rao (Bastion)

Making a video game is like being a member of a band. Each member has its own instrument (programmer, artist, sound designer), you release albums (games), and you have an audience (players who play the game). That's why it's a good idea to be a small game development team: You can't make music with hundreds of band members. The music will also become worse if you start switching band members every 6 months.

Firewatch took about 24 months to develop. But if they for some reason lost the game and had to make it again (and if 90 percent of the models are finished), an exact same version of Firewatch could be made in 4 months.

Ian Dallas (Giant Sparrow - The Unfinished Swan)

There are many books on how to write for movies and television - but not a single one about how to write for games.

While developing a game, and if you share the development process with your players, people will build up an mental image of what the game is which is not necessarily the same as what the game really is.

It's difficult to balance a game so both the players who are skilled players and those who just want a relaxing experience will enjoy it.

If you think you are the perfect play-tester then you are wrong. Do you have children? If not, then you may experience the game differently.

You may have a great idea, but when you hire people to help you make the game, you will feel responsible for those people and thus make a game similar to all other games because you will think the probability to succeed is higher if you do so. So you have to ask yourself: Do I really need a team or do I want to make a game no-one has made before?

Not only will people play your game, they will also watch people playing your game on services like YouTube and Twitch.

Ed Boon (NetherRealm Studios - Mortal Kombat)

As with many other games, Mortal Kombat took inspiration from the movies industry. Why didn't you make a battle royale game after watching the movie Battle Royale in 2000?

Listen to the "maniacs" which are the players who are your biggest fans AND your biggest critics. They will play the game more than you can.

Jeff Kaplan (Blizzard Entertainment - Overwatch)

Guidelines are better than rules because creative people want to break rules.

GTA 5 is an example of a game with a great story telling.

Even though the teams that makes the Blizzard games work within the same company, each team has its individual culture. For example, the team who's developing Hearthstone is starting their day earlier than the other teams.

Players are not good at expressing themselves when giving feedback. They say something is "sh*t" and then it's up to you to determine why they say so.

You can make a post about something you plan to add to the game on a forum and then you will get reactions from your fans. The first reply (the gut reaction) is also useful because it will tell you what your fans think about it when they first heard it.

Making a game is not stressful because it's just a game and not the cure for cancer, but game developers tend to become stressed because they care about the game and love what they do.

Cory Barlog (SIE Santa Monica Studio - God of War)

Failure will teach you to love feedback from your customers because failing is not a good feeling.

There are no magic tricks - the secret to making a good game is hard manual work. The camera in God of War was positioned manually - they didn't have a fancy camera algorithm.

The first version of the game should be chaotic because it means you are experimenting and trying new crazy ideas. Mistakes made in the first version of God of War actually turned out to be something they could add to the final version of the game.

Don't be afraid of sharing your knowledge within the industry. Most big studios are willing to sharing their knowledge and the games industry will benefit from it as a whole, including you. Competitors in the game industry are not really competing because there's not one winner - players will buy different games and they will buy more than one game.

Ru Weerasuriya (Ready at Dawn Studios - Lone Echo)

As a game developer you want to be the best and you want to add the best features to a game - but that's not necessarily what the game needs to make it fun to play.

If you have experience from traditional games like PC, you will not be able to develop a VR game because those platforms are completely different.

Siobhan Reddy (Media Molecule - Little Big Planet)

Take home the game you are developing and play it while relaxing and you will find things you wouldn't have found if you only played it at work.

Some people tend to not talk about problems they see when developing a game because they are scared that the problems can't be solved.

Romain Jouandeau (Sucker Punch Productions - Ghost of Tsushima)

He can spend a day looking for photo references before he starts creating the concept art itself. This is also the easiest way to start painting because if you just stare at the empty canvas it can be difficult to get started.

One way to create a concept art is to start with a simple image made in some 3d software and then paint all the details on the top of that image.

Don't forget to go out an observer the real world because drawing all day is not always good.

Even professional artists struggle: If you don't struggle you are doing it wrong.

You can find many good tutorials for free on YouTube so everyone doesn't have to go to a fancy, expensive school, and most recruiters look at the artwork and not which school you went to. But school can be good for networking purposes.

Tim Schafer (Double Fine Productions - Grim Fandango)

When making a game it's important to transform yourself into different roles. First you need to be an explorer who's just coming up with crazy ideas, then you become an artist who implements the ideas, then you become the judge to determine if the product is really good, and finally you become the warrior who's finishing the game. It might sound silly, but it actually works.

If you worry about something that hasn't anything to do with the game, such as which desk your office should have, then hire someone who knows which desk is the best so you can focus on the game.

There are many games published each day, to stand out from the crowd you can ask a publisher to publish your game, such as Double Fine Productions (they call it presents). You can also use crowdfunding and social media to market your game.

Today it's difficult to sell many copies of your game when you release it - you have to think long-term. Sometimes you read articles about game developers saying their game failed written just a week after lunch, but you can't tell if a game is successful after just a week. Many games make the most money on the first Steam-sale.

June 6, 2018

I've found a podcast made by Paradox Interactive, which is a company that's both making and publishing games. They talk about the business of video games, and if you want to listen to it on your own, you should search for The Paradox Podcast on iTunes or wherever you can find popular podcasts. Their games may not be my favorite type of games, even though I've played some Cities: Skylines which was published by Paradox. But the games are so successful that if they release a new game it often ends up as one of the top selling games on Steam, so it can be a good idea to listen to what they have to say:

S01E01

As said, Paradox is also publishing games, but they say no to 99 percent of the games pitched to them (they get about 1000 pitches per year). But this is a small amount since a publisher like EA gets 1000 pitches per month. Paradox is also only interested in games that fits their portfolio of games, which is mostly management/strategy/rpg games. So they don't want to publish action games.

Two popular games are Prison Architect and RimWorld, and in the podcast they mentioned the clever idea that some people want to pay a little extra to have their content in the game. In the RimWorld case you can pay $15 to buy a DLC that "gives you the right to enter a name into the game so it shows up in all players' games. Players will recruit, command, and fight you for all time!"

It's important to be able to explain your game idea in a simple way. For example, Cities: Skylines said their game is "A modern take on the classic city builder."

Paradox is interested in publishing game that are infinite replayable, hard-core (which I think means you have to use your brain), allows you to create something, and easy to get into. Examples of these games are Kerbal Space Program and Dont Starve, which Paradox wanted to publish but were denied to.

Paradox actually declined to publish World of Tanks, Rocket League, and Psychonauts 2, so if your game is rejected by them, don't feel bad.

S01E02

Ign (a company writing game reviews) bought Humble Bundle (a company selling games). In this podcast they argued that it might be problematic because when Ign write reviews of games they are also selling the games they are reviewing. How can the public reading the review think the review is honest when Ign will make more money by writing good reviews of the games they are selling?

Worldwide, steam is just 12-17 percent of the total PC market, even tough this percentage is higher if you look at Europe and America. So if you are an indie developer, it makes sense to focus on the PC market on Steam because you have limited resources, but if you are more popular you should also focus on other publishing platforms and consoles. Paradox has their own publishing platform called Paradox Plaza.

When working with games, it's important to think long-term. For example, when Steam added the refund policy saying that users can get their money back if they played the game for less than 2 hours, the return rates increased. But Paradox were lucky because their games lasts more than 2 hours. So you need to ask yourself, what happens if Steam is changing a policy? Will it kill my game?

S01E03

Single-player is dead! No it's not, but it becomes more and more difficult for big game companies to make money from single-player games.

To decrease the risk of making a single-player game that's not popular, big game companies have begun to follow the movie industry and produce games similar to the games that have been released before. So not much innovation is happening.

The best game experience is when you have an emergent game experience where anything can happen and the game reacts to you in unexpected ways. Cities: Skylines is included here because you can create you own story. This is also why multiplayer games are popular because if you play against a real human it's impossible to know what will happen. This is also cheaper because the player is creating the content for you.

The PC market is declining slowly.

Paradox has always been trying to go in the opposite direction of the market: they stayed away from consoles, massive multiplayer games like WoW, free-to-play, mobile, and VR. Or as they said in the podcast "We look at what everyone else is doing and then don't do anything."

When pitching games to publishers, don't forget to first figure out what will happen after you've launched the game. A game is a marathon and doesn't always end when you have launched the game!

S01E04

Loot boxes is a sensitive topic and Paradox has developers saying that they would quit if Paradox forced them to implement loot boxes in their games.

Loot boxes is all about implementation and there is a right way and there's a wrong way to implement them. So the discussion should be how to best implement loot boxes. In one way, a game itself is a loot box because you spend money on it but you don't know if the game will be fun, so it's a gamble.

The problem is that companies have realized that they are making money from micro-transactions (where loot boxes are included) so it's an unstoppable trend because a company needs to make money to satisfy the shareholders and be able to keep making games because the cost of making games has increased.

The majority of growth in the game industry comes from Asia and free-2-play models with micro-transactions.

Most "older" gamers are used to buy a game and get 100 percent of the content which is how the game industry was working. This is why they get upset when new games expects them to buy a game and then spend more money to get the full game.

The easiest way to argue with a game company is to not buy the game.

Paradox's solution to micro-transactions is to release a full game that is fully playable and is priced as a full game ($30-50). But then they also release several dlc updates to the game that people have to pay for (and some free updates). They also say it's important to not experiment too much with your core fans by implementing micro-transactions in different ways. It is after all more difficult to get a new customer than to keep an existing customer.

S01E05

How much does it cost to make a game? It's true that the software used when making games is not expensive. An indie developer doesn't have to spend a single dollar on the software needed to make a game because Unity, Visual Studio, Blender, and Krita are free to use (Unity will cost money if you have a profitable game but it's not expensive). It's also not expensive to publish a game. Several years ago you had to manufacture cds in boxes to be able to sell the game, but today you can just sell it over the Internet. An indie developer can also work from home or from a public space like a café.

But big companies need to make their own game engine so they can customize the engine to better fit their game, so they have to invest in research. Because of the research, big companies need to sell more games than the indie developer so they have to invest in marketing the games. Big companies also need big expensive offices.

A Paradox game costs between 2-15 million Euro (both development and marketing costs are included). And it takes 2-3 years to make their games.

A Paradox game is not announced until it has reached an "approved alpha." This means that all the features and content is in the game, but the game still has bugs. You should be able to play the game from start to finish.

You could argue that all of the expenses these big companies have are a waste of money. How could Minecraft become one of the best selling games if Minecraft didn't invest millions in research and marketing? The answer according to Paradox is that Minecraft's success wasn't sustainable and if you are a big company that wants to release several successful games you need a bigger budget.

S01E06

As said before, Paradox's model is to release a playable game for a full price and then release free updates and dlcs. But it's difficult to achieve this balance between free updates and dlcs because if too much is free people will not buy the dlc, and if too much is dlc people will be upset because they bought the original game.

Paradox employees are allowed to speak (on like Twitter) about their work, as long as they are not "di*ks." This makes it clear that all employees are actually humans and it makes everyone responsible for their work. It's common that gamers argue that game developers are only doing it for the money, but by communicating with individuals in the company, the games become more transparent.

Paradox have actually explored a city-builder (like Cities: Skylines) but in 3d and in space. So while the roads are usually in 2d-space even though tunnels are possible, the "roads" in this game would be in 3d, so you can build these vertical roads. But they couldn't implement it because it became confusing for the player because you have to go into the model and see where you are. Another game they dreamed about was logistics on a larger scale.

Paradox argues it's important to own the intellectual property belonging to your game.

S02E01

What many people forget is that game companies want everyone to be happy because then people will buy their game.

As said before, Paradox is trying to find a balance between free updates and dlc you have to pay for. Free updates includes stuff like tech-systems, improved AI, and new UI that makes it easier to play. Paradox actually made some research to discover what people wanted to pay for: new UI features, things that gives you more power to control things, and "flavor" that makes something unique so you can go to another area in the game you haven't been able to see before.

You can't look 12 years into the future when trying to predict where the game industry will be.

Limited time and money is actually good when making games because it forces you to actually release a game. More time and money will not necessarily make a better game.

Paradox has failed making games. For example, when they realized that the game Runemaster wasn't fun, they stopped developing it.

S02E02

Paradox is trying to release a Linux version of their games. The Linux version is not making money because it costs money to also support Linux and not that many Linux users are buying the game. But they argue it's good to always have your "doors open." By saying that I think they mean that if Linux becomes a big gaming platform in the future, the know how to make games for Linux.

The CEO of Paradox argued that one of the reasons Paradox is successful is because of their relationship with the players.

Paradox will soon get a new CEO who has experience from the gambling industry, but no experience from the game industry. The current CEO argues that Paradox will still make the same games but they will try to reorganize the company to make it more efficient to develop those games.

Don't interfere with people in creative industries. When Paradox is buying a game company, they stay away from those companies and let them do their special thing.

Don't forget that you also need to sell your game to someone. Everyone in the organization should understand where the money should come from to be able to make better decisions.

S02E03

GDC is more about the meetings and less about the talks.

It's easier to sell a game based on a known intellectual property, like Star Wars, than to invent a new IP. Included in IP are also brands, themes, and code like the Unity game engine. Example of a theme is World War 2, which is not a protected IP so Paradox can use it to help people understand what to expect from a game. It's common in the game industry to license an IP, like using Unreal game engine when making the game or making a game based on the Mad Max movies.

It's a challenge to create your own IP. Cities: Skylines is a successful game where you build your own city. But what defines CS? You can argue that the blue bird telling people what's going on in the game is an IP. One test you can use to see if you have an IP is to ask yourself: Can I cosplay my game? You can cosplay as the bird, but you can't really cosplay as a building or a road.

Paradox is generally not licensing IPs because they want to focus on the long-term, and using someones IP is short-term because the other guy might stop you from using the IP. But they published Battletech which is a licensed game based on the MechWarrior universe.

When you have an IP it's important to manage the IP to not destroy it. Each time a bad Star Wars movie is released, the value of the IP is diluted. If you release different games based on an IP where each game is doing its own interpretation of what the IP is, the IP is also diluted. This is also why free fan-games are generally not allowed. The value of the IP might be diluted if you make a Star Wars game even though no money is involved.

S02E04

Even though Paradox has made many games they haven't really figured out how to teach the players how to play the games. For example, the older generation who has played SimCity will think it's easy to play Cities:Skylines, but the younger generation will find it harder because CS doesn't have a real tutorial - only small boxes with text appearing above the buttons you should press when you have just started the game. Also the new game Surviving Mars got criticism for being too hard to learn.

To make sure the game is easy to play you can release it as an "early access" at a lower price so people can buy it and give you feedback before the final release. But Paradox is instead releasing their games with a full price and then give you free updates based on the feedback, which is similar to "early access" because no-one knows what "early access" actually is.

Users who review your game are sometimes doing it for political reasons. So a game can sell well even though it has a low score.

S02E05

Paradox has its own convention called Pdxcon. The con is nearly profitable because you have to pay a ticket to be able to attend, but Paradox has seen that they get a boost to the announcements they are making at the con compared to if they had had the show at E3 where many other games are announced and what you announce is lost in the noise.

Because many games are updated over time, it becomes harder and harder to judge them by looking at reviews.

Good reviews generate more sales if the game is new, but good reviews don't matter if the game is a part of an established series of games.

Newly released games should get a score above 80 to sell well.

Some are giving reviews for political reasons and some are giving "odd" reviews. For example, I read a review where someone gave Pubg a bad review despite having played it for hundreds of hours. If you've played something for hundreds of hours and just paid $30 for it, was that game really bad? Paradox argues that a good idea is to give trusted members a larger part of the final review score. This is not a new idea because many people have earlier trusted larger magazines, but now these magazines have been replaced by individuals like you and me.

S02E06

As said before, intellectual properties are important, and now Paradox has decided to make more money by licensing their ips to physical board game publishers. According to their research, they realized that their fans wanted to give them more money and you can only add so and so much to a computer game, so they needed to come up with something else.

Let your players create the game they want because they will do it for free and you can spend your time doing something else. You accomplish this by giving them the ability to mod the game. Out of the top 5 games on steam, 4 started out as mods. Counter-strike is one of them!

Paradox doesn't encourage people to pirate their games, but they will not chase them. They argue that if people play their games, it will strengthen the eco-system around their games so more people might in the end buy their games.

Other medias Paradox might be interested in are movies and television series. But their previous idea to extend their games into books failed.

S02E07

Paradox is not only developing games, they are also publishing games. One of the games they published is BattleTech, and now Paradox has decided to acquire the studio behind the game: Harebrained Schemes.

This was not the first game company Paradox bought. Other recent acquisitions/investments include White Wolf, Triumph Studios, and Hardsuit Labs.

Today you not only need to be able to make a game, you also need to be able to market the game because so many games are released each day. Yes, most games are not worth playing but it's still difficult to show the players that your game is worth playing. This is why Harebrained Schemes decided to sell the company so they can focus on making games and Paradox can focus on marketing their games.

Acquisitions in the game industry have a bad reputation. One of my favorite games was Command & Conquer developed by Westwood Studios. When Electronic Arts acquired Westwood Studios the game series went downhill and now Westwood Studios doesn't exist anymore.

Paradox is acquiring companies to grow and they want to grow by adding more IPs, which has been discussed before. Since it's difficult to come up with your own IP, it's easier to acquire someone else's IP. Harebrained Schemes's IPs are the BattleTech universe and Shadowrun.

S02E08

The focus of E3 is mainly on AAA games, so if you are making a smaller game it will fall between the cracks. But E3 gives you a good chance to meet other people, and you don't have to meet them at the main event - you can meet them at the hotel.

When you announce a new game it's also important to tell people what they can expect from the game. This is why game companies show gameplay and not a movie when they announce a new game because it's easier to show what people can expect from a game by showing gameplay. But there are exceptions to this rule, such as Cyberpunk 2077, which doesn't show any gameplay.

Even though prices are discounted when the Steam summer and Christmas sales are happening, game companies make a lot of money from the sales. But Paradox also has other sales during the year, such as when their convention is happening and when they release a new expansion pack for an existing game.

Yes, profit per sold game during a discount will be lower but more people will play their games and Paradox will thus get more long-term customers. These customers will buy new games from them at full price and new expansion packs for the game they bought at discount. So you have to think long-term and not focus on a single game.

Some argue that discounts are a bad idea because people will see the product as something bad because it's always so cheap to buy it.

If your game is selling, then why should you lower the price of the game? For example, the game Pubg ignored the Steam summer sale the first year because it was the top-selling game on Steam, so why should they lower the price? The next year, Pubg participated in the summer sale because it was no-longer a top-selling game.

When Paradox during a weekend decided to give away a six year old game for free, it ended up on the top-ten list on Steam. What they could see was that more people also bought the expansion packs for the game they got for free.

May 20, 2018

I've spent some time studying how to make trees for games. Trees are important because they often take up a large part of the screen so you need to be friends with them. As usual there are many different art styles you can chose from, but the trees I wanted to make were the trees from the game The Witness. They look like this:

Their trees have an art style called stylized, so they are obviously not 100 percent realistic looking. While The Witness developers have written three blog posts about the trees in their game, none of them described how the trees were made, so I had to guess. One article I found on how to make similar-looking trees is this one: Airborn - Trees. It argues stylized trees can be created by using a blob with a tree shape and then add random quads with a leaf texture to the surface of the blob:

This was the first tree I made in Blender: The mighty elm tree:

First I added an "Ico Sphere" blob and then I added a "Plane" which I unwrapped. To add the leaves I added a particle system to the blob. If you don't know how to randomly spread out a mesh on another mesh with a particle system, you can look at this tutorial: Blender Beginner Tutorial - Part 7: Particles.

But you can't currently export the leaves to a game engine like Unity because they are not their own object. To make them their own object, you can follow this process:

Select the blob and press Shift + Ctrl + A. The leaves are now their own objects

But the leaves still share the original mesh, so it may be difficult to combine them into one object. To solve this problem you select all leaves and press U and select "Object & Data & Material + Tex"

To join them into one mesh you just select one leaf and then the other leaves and press Ctrl + J

To make it all more tree like you need to modify the normals to make them more spherical. This will make the leaves face outwards and upwards from the center of the tree - to emulate the effect that light has on the growth of the tree. You do this by enabling "auto smooth" in the tab next to "modifiers." And then in the "modifiers" tab you add a modifier to the leaves called "Normal Edit" and select the blob as "Target object used to affect normals." The leaves with the blob should now look like this:

And if you export it all to Unity, the result will look like this:

The leaf texture is just random leaves painted with a transparent background:

You can see that the elm is kinda round. To get a less round tree shape you can instead of adding random leaf-planes to the faces of the blob (a setting in the particle system), you can add them to the volume of the blob and then not display the blob at all in the game. You can also add more blobs to get other tree shapes, but the process for each individual blob is still the same.

The process to make the spruce tree is similar. The difference is that you add the branches (which is now a mesh and not just a plane) not to a blob, but to the to the spruce trunk with a particle system. To make the shape more spruce like, you need to use the "Vertex Groups" settings in the particle system by changing the density (no branches at the bottom) and the length (shorter branches on the top). The vertex weight is a value between 0 and 1 and 1 means the longest branch.

You might argue this method of making trees is inefficient. How long will it take to make an entire forest of trees? The answer comes from the game Firewatch. They said in a GDC talk that they only used 14 tree models to build a forest with 4600 trees.

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